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These are the memoirs of Mrs Wood who taught at Mundella. The Mundella related content has been extracted from the autobiography and is displayed below. The full autobiography can be downloaded from the link at the base of the article.

MUNDELLA 1957/62

After two years in the heady atmosphere of a new school (my previous one)Mundella was a culture shock. Nothing had prepared me for the sink the school appeared tobe. I was acutely depressed but realized I was trapped; if I was to havesuccessful teaching career I had to stick it out. I was to stay five yearsat the end of which I was sorry to leave.Full-time Jobs for women with young children were not easily come by. I hadhad several weeks off at Carlton le Willows when the boys and I had mumpsand Nottingham meningitis. Because of this the head regarded me asunreliable and vetoed my appointment full time there - so Ike (head ofEnglish) told me. At two other interviews I had been asked how I couldmanage full-time work with two young children. When the Mundella Job cameup I was doubtful but someone from High Pavement who had recently moved toMundella assured David it was a good school. So it may have been by hisstandards, but High Pavement standards were not mine as I later discoveredwhen I attended parents' evenings there for the boys..I was interviewed at the Council House. My first visit to the school was onthe day before term began when the first year had to come in to be sortedout. I discovered to my amazement that I, a new member of staff, was to bea 1st year form teacher. A case of the blind leading the blind. The woman Iwas replacing had had a first year, so I was automatically plonked in herplace. This was characteristic of the way the place had been run and thelack of attention to pastoral matters.The building with its dirty old floors, glass-partitioned classrooms andgeneral lack of facilities appalled me. It was far worse than Long Eatonand gave the impression of having had no improvements since it was built atthe turn of the century.The school had been let go. The previous head, a kindly character who tookholy orders shortly after retiring, had left the staff to their owndevices. For some that meant dedicated work; for far more taking life easy.A new head, Mr Stephens, had been appointed to tighten things up. And hecertainly did. By the end of the term he was generally loathed - not onlyby the old hands, but also by us newcomers.One of his first actions was to have windows inserted in all classroomdoors so that he could patrol the corridors and see what was going on. Hefound the glass partitioned classrooms were useful. One day he came intoone of my lessons. He told me to carry on; he was not interested in myclass. He spent the lesson sitting at the back of the room watching theteacher in the next room.Certainly there were a number of lazy staff; the head of geography, avenerable lady, could for example regularly be seen reading detectivestories while the class copied out the text book. But blatant spying wasnot the way to gain staff co-operation.Within a few weeks of his arrival he applied for the school to have a fullgeneral inspection. When the report of this finally arrived, the staff wasnot allowed to see it. A few sections were read out at a staff meeting, andHeads of department were summoned to hear the report on their departments.Today no head would get away with such behaviour. There would bedeputations to the office and the governors. Through the Co-op Educationcommittee I knew one of the governors. He let me have a quick look at hiscopy. It was obvious why the head had not let us see the document. One ofthe main criticisms was of the way he was handling reforming the school.Stephens lasted three years before departing for a job in the south. Hisreplacement, Mr Moody, was immediately popular. Within a term he had gotthe hated glass partitions replaced by soundproof boarding. About this timewe also got a new hall with a proper stage, and modern science labs. Thiswas probably a result of the inspection. The snag was that we had nearly ayear's teaching to the accompaniment of a pile-driver while they were beingbuilt. External exams were held that year at the Meadows Boys' Club.The school was 4 stream entry and was rigidly streamed. The form initialswere taken from the school motto Mundella School Go Forward. M being the Astream. It was argued that the pupils did not realize this! One ofStephens's innovations was to introduce form marks. Every three weeks marksin all subjects had to be added up and a form order produced as for anexam. Since this was before the days of cheap calculators, it meant anenormous amount of extra work for form teachers. I was lucky in having ason, Michael, who could be paid to do the addition and percentaging for me.On the basis of these marks and exam marks - we had exams twice a year -Stephens planned to move pupils up and down between the streams and even torecommend that non-performers be moved to secondary moderns. There were, Iam glad to say, vehement staff protests and Stephens had to give in.I liked Mundella pupils - with a few exceptions! They could be tough, butif you took trouble and showed you cared, they responded. They weremarkedly more appreciative than Rushcliffe pupils from West Bridgford. Inmy first year I had a tough 3rd year, 3 F. Three of my five periods withthem were last periods in the afternoon - always a difficult lesson. Whenthey presented me with a set of liqueur glasses for Christmas, I knew I hadwon.Another form I well remember was 2G who lived in a hut outside the mainbuilding where they could make a noise without attracting Stephens. DavidPleat who later played for Nottingham Forest and is now a club manager wasin this form.There were separate men's and women's staff rooms. Later, under Moody, a3rd mixed staff room was opened where the younger members of staff tendedto spend frees, but as far as the women were concerned, not breaks. Thiswas because of the coffee ritual in the women's staff room. Miss DorothyOnions, whom I would call the mistress of the staff room, would be foundwhen you arrived every morning preparing proper coffee for break. None ofthat instant stuff. There was a rota of those free in period 3 whose job itwas to heat it up ready for break. Woe betide you if you forgot, or worsestill let it boil over.Miss Onions had a first class maths degree; she was said to have repeatedlyrefused the head of department post. She lived with her great friend DorisBarlow at Long Eaton. They had both been at the school many years. Therewas I gather gossip about them in the men's staff room. Miss Onions hadlong fair hair worn in coiled plaits over her ears. Another early morningsight was Miss 0. brushing her hair and plaiting it. She was much respectedas a gifted teacher who worked her pupils hard and did her best for them.Altogether a great character. A second Dorothy, Miss Crossley, was a closefriend. The three always had lunch together, taking their serviettes overto the dining hall.Miss Crossley taught English. Doubtless if she had been male, she wouldhave been head of Department. She looked after her elderly mother whichmeant she could never go away on holiday. Unlike Miss Crossley, MissWinfield was a free spirit who gloried in having her own house and gardenand going on holiday with Ramblers. She taught commercial subjects andEnglish. Two other members of the older generation who stand out in mymemory are Miss van Raalte (German) and Miss Walters (PE). Miss Waltersmust have been in her late fifties but was still active on the hockeyfield.They were the last generation of teachers to have their lives dictated bythe marriage bar. I think I may have been the first married woman withchildren to be appointed full-time as opposed to part-time. I would notblame these older women for feeling bitter that women like me could nowhave children and a career, but there was no sign of this. In fact it was avery pleasant staff room.Usually. One day people coming back to the staff room after lunch weresurprised to find the police there asking to inspect their hands. For sometime money had been disappearing from bags and coats left in the staffroom. Miss Onions had reported this to the head who had brought in thepolice. They set a trap leaving a bank note marked with an invisiblesubstance that would stain the hands of anyone touching it. The note haddisappeared from the bag it had been left in. The only person with stainson her hands was a part-time unqualified woman who had been brought in tohelp with girls' games. She was a good tennis player; the club she belongedto had apparently had mysterious financial losses. She was never seen inschool again. The police prosecuted; she opted for trial at crown court,employed a top barrister, and was found not guilty.Three senior men arrived the same term as I. Mr Hoard, tall, soft andgangly was the new deputy head. He and the senior mistress had a veryunhappy time with Stephens Their main functions seemed to be to sit asstatues on either side of him at assembly. Mrs Houseman, the mistress, was"a lady", always immaculately dressed without a hair out of place. Shetaught English, very inadequately learnt later from the sixth form. Neitherseemed to be given any part in administering the school. Mr Sweetland, wholater became a County adviser, also arrived, as did Mr Orchard the new headof English who set about getting some order into the English department. Igot on well with him, and the following year I got more rewarding forms toteach and in due course some sixth form work, which would be essential forgetting a head of department. Mr Orchard left for a headship after 3 years.I refer to these men as Mr because if I ever knew their first names I haveforgotten them. Everyone was Mr/Miss/Mrs except amongst the younger women.Boys were of course called by their surnames. I called my first form boysby their first names, an unheard of thing to do and heartily disapproved ofby many of the men.

MUNDELLAWith the departure of Stephens for Chippenham Grammar School in 1960 (?),there was a marked change for the better. The removal of the glasspartitions between classrooms and the building of the new hall, which had aproper stage and science labs had a big effect on staff morale. At thetime we all put this down to the efforts of our new head, Mr Moody (I haveno idea of his first name). However looking back on it I realize that thereport of the inspectors that we had not been allowed to see was probablythe real reason why new money was allocated to the school, and why Stephensdeparted. The LEA must have written him a glowing testimonial to get rid ofhim.The war-time/ post war bulge was reaching the secondary schools. Moreschools were being opened. There was a particular demand for more grammarschool places; Nottingham city had one of the lowest grammar school intakesin the country. In the county secondary moderns had started doing O leveluntil this was banned by the director J. Edward Mason. The county openednew grammar schools: Carlton le Willows, Bramcote Hills, and Arnold HighSchool. In the city, High Pavement was moved to new premises at Bestwood,and a new grammar school, Forest Fields opened in its vacated building. Ithad been planned to move Mundella to a new building on the new Bilboroughestate, but Mundella staff resisted the move, so a new school was opened inthe new building, Bilborough Grammar School. It was time to improvefacilities at Mundella.Earlier the staff and governors had successfully resisted attempts to makethe school single sex - as they had done with High Pavement.As well as the new building, the school acquired the Colleygate infantschool premises next door. This became a sixth form centre and a library. Ican't remember the previous library if there was one. The regime becamemore liberal, the senior master and mistress went round with smiles ontheir faces and staff morale generally improved. We no longer had threeweeklyform marks, but form term positions were still taken very seriouslyand pupils were still moved between streams. However the threat ofexpulsion to a 2 Mod was removed.Mr Orchard’s departure was a loss, but his replacement as Head of English;Mr Jacobs - again I have no idea of his first name - was easy-going if notinspired. At last I got some 6th form A level work. I was already doingEnglish for 6th form scientists. One of my students was John Wilde wholater turned up - already grey-haired - to become head of Chemistry atRushcliffe Comp. He was also one of my form tutors and I think helped myrelations with the science mafia.Staff retired or left for other jobs. I particularly remember Jean Ritchiewho joined the French department, later became head of languages at TheDukeries Comp and eventually as deputy head at Huntingdon. [ShirleyGreenwood, strikingly good-looking and dressed in the latest fashion -stilettos were just coming in, came to teach geography. Not long after shearrived, she got talking to a woman on the top of a bus, who, apparently,decided she was just the daughter-in-law she wanted. She introduced her toher son and romance blossomed into marriage. They eventually came to livein his parents' house in Musters Rd and I occasionally came across herwhile I was at Rushcliffe.]* Eileen (English) and a scientist whose name Ihave forgotten also livened up the women's staff room.Orchard had started a lunch-time club for the 3rd and 4th, the 34 Society.I took it over when he left. We had debates, discussions, slide-shows, etcand occasional outings in school time, We visited the Raleigh factory,Players (still on Radford Boulevard) and the co-op dairy in Meadow laneamongst others. The highlight was a coach trip to Dovedale, which we walkeddown. I still remember the excitement and joy of one or two girls who hadnever been to such a place before and marvelled at the clear water.My time at Mundella was the age of the scooter. I bought mine, a redVesper, from Blacknells in Arkwright St. I passed the test first time. Itook it in Basford. In the course of it a dog ran out into the roadbarking. The examiner assured me it had not been laid on deliberately tosee if I could cope. I enjoyed the scooter immensely. I often went forrides at lunchtime visiting various co-op shops - I was on the NCS board atthe time. I got to know the new Clifton estate, old Meadows, W. Bridgfordand convenient short cuts in the city centre. I shopped on my way homesince the scooter, unlike a car could be parked almost anywhere. My routetook me direct through the centre, Pelham St, Wheeler Gate (convenientparking at the side of M&S) Arkwright St. I had to abandon the scooterduring my 2nd year at Rushcliffe when I injured my back. I was then on mysecond one. In its place I bought a little Fiat 500 with an opening roof. Icame to love this too.The Mundella building was demolished in the 70's following the re-buildingof much of the Meadows. When the City re-organised secondary education inthe mid 60s it lost its sixth form and became an 11 - 16 comprehensive. Theloss of population in the area and the opening of a new school across theriver at Wilford Meadows led to declining rolls and closure. The site isnow occupied by sheltered accommodation flats. The Colleygate buildingsurvives.